The dying art of sending Christmas cards

I have come to the conclusion, in this modern digital age, that the tradition of posting Christmas cards is dying out. As evidence let me offer to you our experience over the previous 12 months. Last year in early December I laboriously wrote out over 40 cards destined for friends and family in the UK as well as one or two other countries and took them to our post office to send them, requesting second class as usual. [For those who do not know, we only pay British postage rates and so do those who post to us as the military very kindly organise the delivery on the London-Brunei leg]. I was informed that the postage came to over £25. This was a staggering shock to me. "Twenty five pounds for second class, are you sure?!" I spluttered. The price was correct.

Over the next few weeks we exchanged a few more cards with neighbours around the estate, a single Nepali child in Woozles' class who had made the gesture and some of Big Man's very thoughtful colleagues, most of whom are not Christian or European. A handful of cards arrived from the UK, which was lovely. And we arranged them above our windows on the box pelmets we are so thoughtfully provided with, dutifully replacing them every time the fan whirled.

After the festive season was over, Epiphany was truly done and dusted and we were well into January, another batch of cards arrived. Once I had combined them with the others in order to make gift tags (an annual event I always relish), I found the tally of cards from the UK = a grand total of 11. Now I am not a mercenary person and I am happy to do good deeds without expecting something immediately in return but it left me feeling the whole business was a bit of a let-down. Now fair enough most of my friends and a fair few of my family are busy having babies/ working hard/ moving house (particularly the military contingent) at the moment, but I was slightly put out. I suspect we can blame the Royal Mail, or whoever they are these days, for putting up the price of stamps, and of course it can't be easy keeping tabs on where we live when we move, on average, just under once a year, however with the exception of a few elderly people who do not have a computer I am officially resigning from sending Christmas cards from now on. Maybe it'll even inspire one or two individuals to read the blog other than that weird guy in Russia.